Snapping their gazes round towards the source of the shout, Deidara and Mina stared back at Pein as he stepped forward, calling a halt to their battle. Narrowing her eyes, Mina tried to come up with a reason as to why he wouldn’t let them continue—surely it couldn’t be because he didn’t want her to get hurt. He wasn’t even sure about her being around the hideout, so why would it bother him? The very idea itself made Mina’s hackles rise; she didn’t want to have to be pulled out of a match because people thought she wouldn’t be able to carry it through. Deidara was just as annoyed; he’d wanted to win right from the beginning, and to fully get her back for what Mina had done to him while they had been fighting. But he couldn’t exactly do that if they stopped, and so half-glared at Pein for making them do so.
“I have a reason for finishing the fight before an end had arrived,” he began, and both of them stared him down in an attempt to silently ask as to what that reason was. They weren’t about to give up on this battle without a feasible excuse, and waited impatiently as Pein finally added,
“No doubt with the way you were acting, Deidara, you were going to start use C3 explosives. But if you remember, we’re trying to remain a low presence for our mission; though the hideout is a few minutes from the village, with the strength of your bombs it wouldn’t take much for someone to notice. If they see it, they’ll no doubt send someone to look, and all we’ve been trying to do will come to nothing—not to mention the hideout is only a minute away, and a powerful enough bomb will end up destroying that, as well. So I thought it best to stop before anything too big occurred,” then inserting as an afterthought,
“And I think we’ve all seen enough to understand the power of your abilities.”
Though neither Deidara or Mina were fully alright with Pein's reasoning, they both understood it made sense—if they got too involved, Deidara would use whatever bombs were necessary, and those kind of bombs would destroy so much in the nearby area. With it being night time, as well, it wouldn’t be hard to see the end results of the explosion from the village. So, as much as they didn’t want to, they alighted back on the ground and walked over to the others once again. Not wanting to create an atmosphere between the two of them, however, Mina crossed the clearing to offer a hand to Deidara, and after a moment of staring at it in confusion, he shook it. With a smile, Mina then continued across the clearing, leaving Deidara happily surprised. She did have a little bit of innocence, then. Clearly she wasn’t about to tease or brag about anything that had happened on the battlefield; she simply saw it as a fight, and nothing more. But shaking it off, Deidara joined her. Maybe she wasn’t so bad.
At least she wasn’t as grumpy as Sasori.
Itachi offered Mina bandages to help with the cuts on her arms, but she merely shook her head, brushing them off. She might need to clean the dirt off, but apart from that they would heal by themselves—and it was at that point everyone noticed that she wasn’t bleeding from her wounds; already they seemed less visible than they had when she had received them. Raising an eyebrow at that fact, wondering just how she was able to do that, Itachi shrugged and stepped back, allowing her to start heading back to the hideout, Deidara taking the bandages instead. For a moment everyone watched her back as she walked onwards, before turning to Sasori, curious as to all they had seen. True, they’d observed what her abilities were like in battle, but they didn’t actually know what they involved, Pein asking Sasori to elaborate a little.
“It’s because of her help—because of studying her anatomy—that I was able to change myself into a puppet. Mina’s body isn’t the same as everyone else’s—chakra runs through her veins, Leader-sama, not blood. Though she has all her vital organs in a way I no longer do, she doesn’t need them; she simply eats and drinks because she thinks it looks or smells good. Her heart and brain are practically more like machines than anything else.”
Narrowing his eyes at Sasori's words, Pein couldn’t help but be impressed—much the same as the rest of the Akatsuki. They’d never imagined that this was the kind of thing that allowed Mina to do what she could—but they pressed for more information; what exactly did she do to do all that stuff? Rolling his eyes at their sudden interest, Sasori hid a sigh and complied, replying,
“There are ways in which it’s similar to the puppet master jutsu. She can create chakra strings, true, but she can also manipulate that chakra into other shapes and forms. She can create shields or just use it as a weapon in itself. What she did with Deidara's birds…she integrated her chakra into the clay, and manipulating it from there, she forced it to break apart. She can reverse the process, too. In essence, the forms she can make her chakra take are unlimited.”
Then abruptly remembering something, he quickly added,
“It’s because of the way her chakra is that means she still looks as young as she does—why she doesn’t really bleed and how her wounds heal by themselves.”
As he fell silent, to begin with, no one broke the silence, thinking over all Sasori had told them in shock and almost awe. Deidara had had no idea that Mina could do anything like that, and wasn’t so surprised at how the battle had turned out. He knew Sasori's abilities were powerful, but Mina’s took that idea to a whole other level, and having expected one thing and then being presented with something completely different—something that no one else in the world was able to do, it wasn’t such a shock that she had caught him out like that. He would have won if he was actually allowed to fight properly and use all of his bombs, of course, but still. It was pretty artistic.
But with all this knowledge and having watched the whole fight, no one doubted that Mina was powerful enough to be in the Akatsuki. Pein's fears that she wouldn’t be able to keep up if she went around with Sasori, only becoming a liability if drawn into battle because she wouldn’t be able to protect herself…they’d easily been proven wrong. Now the possibility of having Mina working with them, being able to see the full extent of her abilities on a true battlefield and against numerous different opponents seemed like an exciting one, and all of the Akatsuki were on board with letting her stay. After all, that had been the deal—if Mina proved she was good enough with her abilities then she’d be allowed into the Akatsuki.
Pein wasn’t quite as certain that had been what he said. Mina’s abilities had been just one of the factors he said he would have to take into account when considering whether he would let Sasori keep her around. Sure, he’d said that she could prove her abilities, but that wasn’t all that had concerned him. But he doubted anything he said would have an effect; the moment he had stated that Mina would fight one of the Akatsuki to show her abilities were powerful enough, the rest of the Akatsuki had made their own conclusions. They’d seen it as a deal in which, if she proved herself, then she was in. Though it wasn’t as if he hadn’t been impressed. It wasn’t as if he didn’t think Mina could do it—clearly she could. And with her unwavering loyalty to Sasori—he’d seen her bow to him before the fight—she wouldn’t have done anything that would put him in danger.
Everyone followed on behind Pein as he caught up with Mina as she arrived at the hideout, standing and watching as he stated quietly,
“You proved yourself out there, Minarai-chan. I had my doubts beforehand; I’ll admit it. But taking everything into account…I’d say you can stay.”
